My reclaimed floorboard idea

[bigfootlittle]

I had this idea, don't know if it's feasible, what do you think?

I have old floorboards in a Victorian house. Some have been messed about with but there's lots of them still in good condition. There's big gaps throughout, as well as a few mouse holes in the skirting!

I want to seal the whole floor up, while also working on the soundproofing. So, to the idea...

What if I took up all the floor boards, and nailed plywood to the joists. Then I could put on a layer of rubber matting for the sound. And then another layer of ply, and either nail or glue the floorboards to the ply?

That way I could close all the gaps, and replace any dodgy boards with reclaimed boards from the salvage yard.

Could this work?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

What you'll probably find is that you lose up to half of the boards you are lifting because they wil split as to attempt to lift them. after that you'll have to sort out the good boards from the bad ones and also dispose of the short ends left from electrical and plumbing work done over the years.

In terms of the plywood, what thickness were you thinking about? Unless it's at least 18mm you'll have insufficient strength to carry any weight and the floor will sag all over the place. By putting a layer of rubber on top and then a further layer of ply on top of that before replacing the floor boards you will be raising the floor level by at least 26mm (depending on the thickness of the rubber - probably more) - so the skirtings,and architraves will all ned to come off, be lifted and replaced (and again you'll probably lose a percentage. In addition the doors will all need to be shortened. In all probability you'll find that the salvaged boards aren't the same thickness as your existing boards and if they are T&G the tongues and grooves will probably not marry up.

As to the rubber, I just can't see what you are hoping to achieve. True, thick (i.e. 1in and above) recycled rubber matting is sometimes used for sound deadening in commercial new builds, but it's very heavy and as soon as you nail or screw the second layer of plywood on top you'll be creating a sound transmission pathway through the fixings

So, could it work? Maybe, maybe not, but it's a heck of a lot of (unnecessary) work when there are far simpler alternatives